The invention relates to a labeling machine for receptacles such as bottles comprising a labeling unit which is disposed on a compound slide having an upper carriage part and a lower carriage part.
Modern labeling machines are suited to process a variety of different shapes and sizes of receptacles. However, in the case of the change-over from one type of receptacle to another one, an exchange of machine parts for the substitute receptacles may be necessary. For example, the gripper cylinder often needs to be exchanged when the machine is converted to handle a different receptacle. For the exchange of the gripper cylinder and the possibly necessary readjustment of the labeling unit for other receptacle diameters the labeling unit must be mounted displaceably at least transversely to the running direction of the receptacle transporting device.
Therefore, according to prior art practice the labeling unit has been mounted on a compound slide which comprises an upper carriage part and a lower carriage part. These parts can be displaced relative to each other by means of a lead screw. This is done by means of a handwheel or crank which requires relatively long downtime due to the low thread pitch, which is necessary for reasons of self-locking. Also, the complicated adjustment of the position of the labeling unit relative to measuring scales or markings contributes partly to the delay.